Smart home systems (SHSs) are a modern lifestyle trend, changing daily lives in the most intuitive way. To connect and operate various smart devices under one system, an accurate, convenient, and secure control method is of utmost significance. Nowadays, most smart home control systems are based on radio-frequency (RF) technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Zigbee. They tend to suffer from poor location accuracy in high-density environments due to the interference and noise in RF signals as well as their penetration through walls, leading to security vulnerabilities and low-precision control. To address these issues, this paper presents a smart home control system based on visible light communication (VLC), with enhanced security and accurate localization for precise and convenient control. The system includes an AC lightbulb, a smartphone running the position and control applications, and a cloud server with location-based access and a database of smart home devices. The design of the AC lightbulb integrates VLC and Bluetooth connectivity in a standard form factor for easy installation and plug-n-play capability. A smartphone camera-based 3D indoor positioning and orientation algorithm that allows precise control by pointing the smartphone the device is also presented. We demonstrate the feasibility of this system through prototype implementation and experimental verification.
Keywords: Bluetooth; Internet of Things (IoT); smart home; visible light communication (VLC); visible light positioning (VLP).